Orbital Decay
by dytabytes
Summary: An alternate explanation for Jetfire's absence that doesn't involve crash-landings, the Arctic, or experimental field studies. Made AU by TF2


**Title:** Orbital Decay  
**Fandom:** Transformers Movie (2007)  
**Characters:** Starscream, Jetfire (Starscream/Jetfire if you squint and turn your head to the side a little)  
**Word Count:** 800  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Summary:** An alternate explanation for Jetfire's absence that doesn't involve crash-landings, the Arctic, or experimental field studies.  
**AN:** If I get my way, there will be a sequel. It has to do with the fact that I consider Jetfire and Skyfire to be two different entities. More on that later.

* * *

Jetfire is so excited about his new idea that he locks himself up in his quarters for cycles at a time, surfacing from his burrow only to grab energon and brush at Starscream's wing in an apologetic way before digging back into his research. Starscream doesn't know _what_ the other mech is up to, but Jetfire's enthusiasm is so great that he lets it go (Shh, it's a surprise! You'll see when I'm done!).

He's looking forward to the fruits of Jetfire's labour. His partner's theories are always brilliant and they'll probably end up celebrating in the best of ways.

They fight, with Starscream shrieking that there's no possible way that Jetfire will get the council to fund his research, and Jetfire batting aside the other mech's concerns. Science, he says, is unbiased. If he can disprove the previous theories, the council will _have_ to agree with him. And then his name will go down in history.

Starscream doesn't agree. Such a huge overthrow of Cybertronian beliefs just won't work, especially not when you consider how set in their ways some of the council are. Some of those mechs and femmes were around to see the fall of the Vok!

But Jetfire is so sure of himself that it's impossible to change his mind and Starscream eventually gives up on trying. It's a sound theory scientifically, after all, interesting and full of intricate details that are so very alluring. If Jetfire can present himself in just the right way, maybe he stands a chance of convincing the council to see things his way.

Jetfire returns with his wings drooping and his optics dimmed. Starscream already knows the outcome of his research proposal. This is the fifth time that the council has turned it down. He pulls out a cube and hands it to Jetfire, who has slumped over on their kitchen table with a lost look on his face. In answer to Starscream's wordless question, Jetfire holds up a datapad.

It's the council's response. They didn't even try to keep their words professional this time, ordering Jetfire to get over the glitch in his programming and start work on something _useful_ this time because they won't fund such a stupid endeavour. They tell him, no, they command him to go back to the research he was doing that earned him his place in Polyhex. Improved energon refinement techniques are useful, after all unlike his new crackpot ideas.

Starscream snarls softly as he reads. There's a line between reprimand and rudeness, and the council has waltzed right over it into deathly insult. The theories proposed may be radical, but they're Jetfire's kind of radical. Starscream's _partner's_ kind of radical. Failure, now, is unacceptable.

Starscream turns to Jetfire. "I have extra funding and spare lab space. When do we start?"

The light that sparks in Jetfire's eyes is more than worth the scrimping and saving that Starscream will have to do to finish his original research, and maybe if they can get some solid evidence of Jetfire's as-of-yet unproven theories...

They've failed and the science council is full of close-minded imbeciles and Starscream doesn't know what to do. The Elite Guard came and brought them here to the holding cells to await judgement. They're cuffed, wings and wrists and ankles chained together as if they were common criminals. Starscream curses as they wait, angry at the council, angry at the world, angry at Jetfire and most of all angry at himself for believing that they ever had a chance at all.

They come for Jetfire first. Somehow, he manages to reach out and brush his fingertips against the edge of Starscream's wing as he passes, a familiar consolation and when he promises that everything will be alright in that reassuring whisper of his, against his better judgement, Starscream feels hope.

Hope is for fools and Starscream will be one no longer. Jetfire is gone, punished by the High Council for his "illegal research" (and _how_ can studies be illegal when they harm no one?). Starscream isn't told where his partner has been shipped off to, or if there's even enough left of him to be shipped off anywhere in the first place. For his "minimal" role in Jetfire's work (and, oh how it annoys him that Jetfire must have played down Starscream's role in his work in order to take the majority of the blame onto himself) Starscream is given a slap on the wrist and a warning to be more careful with who he trusts.

He smirks darkly as he realizes that he always _has_ been choosy in who he's trusted. The mistake he made was in assuming that society itself was trustworthy. He won't make that mistake again.

Megatron finds Starscream drowning his sorrows in a run-down bar in the city slums. He is charismatic and convincing, and the two hit it off almost immediately. There is no turning back.


End file.
